Whittonstall opencast coal fight wins backing

Jan 7 2010 by Neil McKay, The Journal

VILLAGERS fighting plans for an opencast site have been boosted by the support of a campaign group.

The Northumberland branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England has pledged to back Whittonstall residents who are opposing the extraction of two and a half million tonnes of coal from countryside on a site less than 300 yards from the village school.

UK Coal will submit a planning application later this year to mine two million tonnes of coal at Whittonstall, between the villages of Ebchester and Stocksfield on the Northumberland side of the county border with Durham.

The company has submitted a scoping report to Northumberland County Council ahead of its application for the site, which would be called Hoodsclose.

Villagers have previously fought off two proposals for a large opencast mine near Whittonstall, in 1978 and 1984.

The latest bid has sparked fears over the impact on the picturesque village and its appeal for families with young children. A public meeting to discuss the scheme was held at Whittonstall’s St Philip and St James’s church hall and more than 100 people turned up with the overwhelming majority displaying their opposition in a show of hands.

An action group has been formed to fight the plans and the CPRE has pledged its support.

Janet Somerville, chair of CPRE Northumberland, said: “This is a beautiful and tranquil area of open countryside.

“The idea that it could be turned into an opencast mining site is frightening. Rural Northumberland has vast reserves of coal and if this site goes ahead it could be the thin edge of the wedge which will see much of he the country despoiled.”

She added: “CPRE will be adding its voice to the many already raised in protest against this new application.”

If given the go-ahead, UK Coal claims the project will create at least 50 jobs for around seven years.

Villagers at Leadgate and Dipton in County Durham, around five miles from the Whittonstall site, are opposing another opencast proposal by UK Coal.

Last month Durham County Council planners agreed to an application by UK Coal to create four habitat ponds for great crested newts next to the site.

The company, which plans to extract 556,000 tonnes from the Bradley site, an area of 73,000 square metres in the Derwent Valley, was hindered by the presence of the tiny animals on a pond in the area where it wants to mine.

Now that councillors have approved the plans to create new ponds for the protected species UK Coal will proceed with its application to mine.